Next day morning Daemon already saw posters about that he will have a duel with Granmoun.
- What a pain...
Everyone knew other than him that Granmoun was one of the strongest dark mage in the Central Dragon Empire. The fact that he was the one who challenged Granmoun was also known. While he was walking toward every student stepped out of his way. The first and second year students did that out of fear while the third year students did it out of either respect or pity as they thought he challenged the wrong guy this time. Daemon didn't care about the gazes of the others. He just couldn't care less about that. He had a trump card...
When he arrived to the classroom one hell of a surprise he found...
- Sorry for yesterday. You truly is a black-demon dragon. I truly mean it. - Dianne bowed down in front of him as he apologized.
- Okay, okay... Just stop it... The whole class staring at us. Just sit down and forget about yesterday. - then he sat down.
- Daemon, Daemon!!! - all the girls in his class...well his class as a whole if we think about it... started asking him questions which quickly started annoy him.
Daemon walked...well...ran would be more accurate... out the class room and went to the washroom. There he created a mana clone of himself and send it out to bait the girls away from him. After he made sure that no one will notice him he ran back to his classroom. He saw that Elise was there reading a book.
- At least one of them is normal. - he thought.
What he didn't realized fast enough that Dianne stood behind him. She wasn't fooled by the clone. She was just stood here until he turned around and saw that she was there.
- Can I help you, your highness? - Daemon asked her.
- I give you the permission to call me just Dianne.
- Okay then. How can I help you Dianne?
- Would you eat lunch with me together today? - she asked him with bright red face.
Female dragons were naturally attracted toward Daemon as he was quite good-looking and after the "incident" happened yesterday where he demonstrated his strength. For a female dragon like an instinct was that they fell in love... in the strong males. It was one trait of being a male dragon that you were either was strong and have quite a large amount of attention from the opposite sex or you were weak and you lost your chance to have not only a wife but likely you wouldn't get a chance to have a girlfriend. After all... It wasn't a problem to a male to have that kind of popularity as polygamy was widely accepted amongst the dragons. It was part of their culture.
- Well... Sure.
- Okay you two... sit down, and where is the rest of the class? Don't tell me use used that clone magic... - It was Samantha's voice. - Call them back to the classroom... Now!
- Wait... How did you know? - Daemon asked Samantha surprised.
- Daemon... - her voice got angrier with each letter...
- Fine...- Daemon gave up against her.
- Wait... clone magic?
- Yep... I created it to fool Samantha... It was quite a success f I may say so...
- You created a new magic spell just to fool Samantha? Why?
- Well... You see... - as Daemon started to speak, Samantha quickly stopped him by quickly starting to tell a short story to Daemon's clone spell.
- He wanted to sleep longer one time, but I didn't let him that. After a few minutes of arguing, he told me to leave him alone for a few minutes as he needed to change outfit and after 5 minutes he will be ready. After leaving him, he sent out his clone instead of coming out himself. Only after 2 hours when the clone disappeared I realized what he did. What even more funny that even I can't use that spell after he tried to teach me... It simply too unstable for me.
- It totally worthed it even with that punishment afterward...
- Punishment? - she had a puzzled look in her face... Just what kind of punishment worked on Daemon???
- I'll tell you later...
*time skip*
It was lunch break. Dianne and Daemon went to the academy's park and sat down under a huge tree. Daemon was searching his sandwiches when Dianne poke him from behind and said:
- You see... I ended up making too much food for lunch and that why I brought some for you to.
- Thank you.
- Yes... If that possible... I would like you to teach me that spell...
- That's fine. But I warn you don't think that you will succeed with it with the first try.
He opened the lunchbox Dianne gave him, it was filled with grilled fish and onion-tomato salad. He put the salad on the top of the fish and took a bite.
- It's delicious! - he continued eating.
- Thanks. - she blushed even more brightly - you see... Tomorrow is weekend right? I was wondering if you could come with me tomorrow shopping.
- Okay. I didn't had any plan for weekend anyway.
Daemon at that time, didn't realize what he agreed to...
- Just one thing, Daemon.
- What is it?
- Well, don't use your clone tomorrow. - she laughed.
- Okay. By the way Dianne, if we meet go to shopping tomorrow shouldn't we think about where and when we should meet up?
- How about at the academy gate around 9 a.m.? - Dianne answered him after a little hesitation.
- Fine by me. We should head back to class by now shouldn't we?
- No. We still have 10 minutes left until class. Let's finish lunch first. So... You told me about that punishment earlier... Just what happened back then?
- Well... She sealed away my mana and forbid me from using any weapon... so far it sounds good... but what she did after that...
- Just what happened? - she got excited.
- She forced me to have a battle with an elemental hydra... I had to hold out for 10 minutes without any kind of defence...
- How did you survived? I mean without magic or weapons it impossible to defeat an elemental hydra...
- Turned out... I could understand hydras... After 10 minutes it good angry and started shouting at me... and I understood it... After I realised that I agreed with that hydra in a tie... so I pretty much became friend with a hydra as punishment...
- You are ridiculous. Only hydras can speaks with other hydras... Wait a second... Your dragon soul is not a hydra... Are you a dual-core by any chance?
- Dual-core? - Daemon had a puzzled look.
- Those who has 2 dragon souls inside them called dual-cores.
- As far I know I'm not a dual-core... Is that a rare thing?
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
- Well... Let's say they are quite rare... Only one out of two hundred thousand is dual-core. It would explain your experience with that hydra... but then again... only 3 hydra dragon soul existed so far in the history.
- How about we talk about this some other time? We will late from class...
- You right. Tomorrow we can talk about this.
*time skip*
Daemon stood in the arena as agreed with Granmoun yesterday. The arena was filled with student and teachers. They were interested in how either the legendary black-demon dragon or their school's principals will end up getting beat up... Some even started betting amongst themselves which one will win. They knew how strong Granmoun is, but they didn't dare to underestimate Daemon as he was the challenger. The principal entered the stage.
- So, will you surrender and become my disciple or I need to beat up you first?
- Don't think you already won... - Daemon answered mocking Granmoun.
One could fell how tense the atmosphere around those two...
- Fine... It seems I really need to beat you up first. The first spell I'm going to use will be a master tier, called "Cry of Shadows".
A dark whirlwind started emerging in the hand Granmoun in a fast pace.
- Are you sure a simple master tier will be enough against me? - Daemon continued mocking the old man.
Daemon stood in his place without worries. The Sun was behind Daemon and because of it his shadow was in front own of him. When the spell grew to the size of basketball Granmoun simply threw it toward Daemon's shadow. As it hit the Daemon's shadow it simply disappeared. Daemon simply couldn't understand what happened. After a few second his shadow started slowly move in its own and started screaming like a banshee. Daemon started feeling dizzy but he knew that he can pass out just like that. He started releasing a black mist out of his mouth and the mist slowly moved toward his ears. Once the mist reached his ears it started acting like earplugs cancelling out the noise. The spell stopped after a few more second and the mist dispersed after that making him capable hearing again.
- I received your first strike with that. Now send the second one!
- This time I'm going to use a sage tier spell called "Overshadowed Soul".
Daemon's class watched his duel with Granmoun worried.
- Teacher!
- Yes, Dianne?
- Do you know anything about that spell?
- The one Granmoun going to use?
- Yes.
- As far as I know it inflict pain to the target based on the difference of the human's and the dragon's soul's strength.
- Isn't that supposed to be lethal?
- No... I know this guy for a few years now(she meant Granmoun)... Did he tell you about the hydra?
- Yes.
- That punishment made his human soul stronger quite a lot... but even if the difference still to great he wouldn't die, there is a restriction on that spell. At max it would make one faint...
- Still... Will he be alright?
- We'll see... We'll see... - Samantha also worried for him.
As Samantha and Dianne had they conversation, a small black object started forming in Granmoun hand.
- "Overshadowed Soul"! - he shouted and threw the black object toward Daemon.
The small object hit Daemon and started burrowing inside him. Daemon started feeling enormous pain suddenly. He felt like he will lose like that. Suddenly a black aura started appearing around him and the pain vanished.
- What happened? - he asked himself.
- Just what the hell are you boy? How didn't you pass out from that and what was that aura? - Granmoun was really pissed off.
Dianne was searching for the right words to describe what she saw. Such pure, black aura. It didn't felt evil or anything like that, rather... majestic and something which forced people to respect him.
- So he helped him... - Samantha whispered.
- What did you said teacher? - Dianne looked puzzled at her.
- Nothing... I just happy that my successor this strong. - Samantha tried to calm her.
Granmoun pride started breaking as he saw that even that didn't worked on Daemon.
- Well... I suppose I just accept what happened... I still have to win this. - Daemon calmed himself.
- BOY! YOU REALLY PISSED ME OFF NOW! NOW YOU EARNED YOURSELF SOMETHING THAT EVEN I FEAR USING. - Granmoun was really furious.
"Great darkness that rules the night, great darkness that exist within the cosmos, great darkness I plead to you to show your everlasting might, show that you merciful toward us, not weaker. Show that you are absolute power that can destroy anything in its path. Dark spear".
- THIS IS IT BOY, THIS IS PURE DESTRUCTIVE POWER!
- "Weak" - this word resonated in Daemon's mind.
Daemon could tell that dark spear is a higher class god tier spell.
- I guess I'll need to use body enchantment at its maximum power to block that. The second he activated it Granmoun finished his preparations to throw the spear.
Daemon quickly raised his arm and focused on creating multiple pure mana shield in front of him. As soon as the shields formed Granmoun threw the spear. The spear flew toward him with high speed and shattered the shields with little effort. The second the last shield shattered Daemon raised his palm toward the spear as shouted.
- "Jet Stream"! - His hand accelerated to high speed with the help of released mana from his arm. As his palm reached the spear the spear almost instantly shattered because of the tremendous force of daemon's strike. His arm become numb but no damage were dealt to his arm.
- I won, old man. There's not even a stretch in my body. Now it is my turn...
Within a second Daemon disappeared only to appear in front of Granmoun. He gently touched Granmoun chest and stepped back while counting back from three.
- 3...2...1... "Jet Stream".
From Granmoun chest mana busted forward. with high speed sending him flying backward. He smashed to the arena's wall and collapsed.
- You asked me what "Jet Stream" exactly... How should I describe it... Humans developed jet engines that accelerate and release air with high speed to the opposite direction of the movement forcing the object itself to move. It the same with this spell... The only difference that instead of air... I use my mana. and it also one of my favourite self-developed spell. I guess you understand now... If not, then it only your problem.
After this Daemon left the arena while thinking about the aura that appeared around him and the word that resonated within his head.